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Movember 2021 Feeling Top of The World

movember

Movember 2021 Report Written by Stephen Law Lyons – Team Training Northwich Member

I have been raising funds for and awareness of men’s health issues for 9 years with Movember UK.  The last 2 years, the covid years, I have had the honour of enlisting the support of men in Team Training Northwich through my gym with Paul Connor, and Northwich Round Table.

In 2020 together we had Rowvember where we indoor rowed and ran more than the Land’s End to John O’Groats distance, 1,500,000m and raised almost £6,000.  It helped us all with the lockdown and gave us a purpose to build up our kilometres together, virtually.

Inspired by that success we wanted another challenge for 2021.  FEELING TOP OF THE WORLD – Individually virtually climbing the equivalent of Everest as a month-long goal.  As part of the Everest challenge, we included a standalone real climb team activity goal of climbing Snowdon.  Paul Connor raised the bar and challenged us to carry weights up and down.

The team rose to the challenge and 10 of us climbed Snowdon with around 15kgs each in our backpacks.  The weight had a significance for Movember – it was to be in total at least 130kg which is the total weight of the prostates (11g average) of the men who die each year from prostate cancer.  That is 1190 men that die each year from a treatable cancer.

We all had our different motivations – one team member shared “My motivation is that I’ve always wanted to climb Mount Snowdon but more so ever since my wife was diagnosed with an incurable blood cancer and my brother with testicular cancer. I also know family members and friends who have prostate cancer so this trek was in honour of them.”

The climb was spectacular, we climbed the Pyg Track and descended the Llanberis path.  The weather was as good as we could have hoped for and visibility was great.  We had a very special remembrance service at the summit “For me the best bit of the hike was getting to the summit 5 minutes before 11am on Remembrance Sunday and witnessing an emotional tribute and 1 minute silence on the top of Mount Snowdon above the clouds” said Amit.

Prosecco, thanks Ben, and samosas, thanks to Amit’s wife, were consumed at the top to fuel our descent.

We raised a huge amount of money again, and it is still coming in.  Last count we were at £3,650 raised for Movember and a further £2,319 for Macmillan Cancer support.  In total it will be another £6,000 raised from a small group of men.  Thanks to my company APC Cardiovascular Ltd too as it matched funding to a pledge of £500 per fundraiser, a total contribution of £1,000 this year.

It is amazing what we can do when we have a challenge, and we gang together as a team.

Thank you to all our sponsors and of course the team:

  • Amit Patel
  • Andy Firth
  • Ben Flynn
  • Ed Jackson
  • Glyn Knight
  • James McEwen
  • Kris Ellis
  • Matt Westmoreland
  • Paul Connor
  • Wayne Hasselby

In 2022 I hope to be a Sports Ambassador for Movember and we aim to raise more money and awareness for this fantastic charity that helps men’s physical and mental health issues.

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What I do for Exercise and Why

personal training cheshire

I think the first point I’d like to make is that everything I do I enjoy immensely. I wouldn’t do any of it if that were not the case. Exercising the way I do makes me FEEL amazing. The fact that I look good as a result is a bonus. Think about it – we do the things we do with our leisure time because they make us feel good. Where I win over overweight unhealthy people is that what they do to feel good, comes at a cost to their health and most importantly there is always a negative come down e.g. hangover or remorse from a binge.

Unfortunately, not enough people say the same as me when it comes to why they exercise and they do certain things because they feel they have to or have been told to. This is what I do and why I do it.

  • I lift heavy stuff.
  • I move fast over various distances.
  • I combine lifting reasonably heavy stuff and moving fast.

Those 3 points above sum up what I do.

What is lifting heavy stuff?

Lifting heavy stuff is using as many muscle groups as I can to shift a heavy object. Squat, push, pull, lunge, bend and rotation are all the movements involved in moving heavy objects. The possibilities and number of exercises literally is endless. Not 30 minutes ago I finished a workout in my garden and invented 6 new exercises I’ve not done before in that workout alone.

Why do I lift heavy stuff?

Three reasons:
  • To build a lot of muscle and become strong. The more more muscle that is built, the more fat I will burn at rest. The stronger I am, the healthier I will be with a greater chance of increased longevity. The moves I do help by saving time on the amount of exercises needed to be performed. For example, if I perform a clean and press with a kettlebell, barbell or sandbag, the amount of muscles used is tenfold the amount used if sitting at a machine using one limb.
  • To promote mobility. By lifting heavy objects in such a variety of planes of motion, I take my body into many different shapes. The human body was meant to get into lots of shapes. Believe it or not, we were built to do more than sit looking at a screen!
  • It makes me feel good. By lifting heavy things multiple times, feel good chemicals such as endorphins are released and make me feel happy. There is a distinct difference between happiness and pleasure which I could go into much more in depth but basically if you are happy you do not need to seek as much pleasure. If you aren’t so happy, you are more likely to seek pleasure. Pleasure seeking most often comes in the form of eating and drinking.

So in summary as to why I lift heavy things: it makes me feel good, look good and it increases my health and lifespan.

Why do I move fast over various distances?

Here is should explain what that means. Rowing, cycling, running, swimming and cross country skiing are great examples. I like to get from point A to point B as fast as I can. It does not mean going as FAR a distance as I can although this is also good when I have time on my hands.

  • To increase the strength of my heart and efficiency of my lungs. As with strength training above, the more heart healthy I am, the longer I am likely to live. It’s no good having a heart attack if you haven’t got a heart that isn’t ready to defend itself!
  • To test myself and see if I can become better. Achieving a personal best or beating somebody in a race basically shows “I’m the man!” and “I’ve still got it!”
  • It makes me feel beyond amazing. High intensity aerobic training feels so good because evolution designed it that way. Think about it – a lion chases you and you evade it. Wow! That felt so good I think the next time a lion chases me I’ll run fast again! The whole “cardio” system the world is sucked in by – to travel slowly for a long way is boring to so many. Look at children playing – they will race, not try to run a long way slowly!

Why do I combine lifting reasonably heavy stuff and moving fast?

  • Camaraderie. It’s a type of workout we often do as a group. We may race individually or in teams and all these sessions are tremendous fun that leave us discussing what we’ve done at the end for a long time. They bond and strengthen our community.
  • Variety of workout. The possibilities for these types of workout literally are infinite so there is never a chance of getting bored with a gym visit. This is such an important point as so many people hate exercising. The primary reason for this is because what they are doing is about as entertaining as watching paint dry.
  • Makes me feel amazing. Yep! Here’s that reason popping up again. The one that has zilch to do with how impressive my chest and arms look but the more I do all of these things, the more the mirror rewards me!

So there you have it. That’s what I do and why I do it. It is the basis on how I coach everybody who comes into contact with me and is the foundation for our Team Training programme. This model delivers outstanding fitness results and virtually everybody who trains with us reaps the rewards for doing so. It is a system I am highly unlikely to change but continue to evolve and I would recommend it for anybody to try.

Give me a shout if you feel like having a go.

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What do you expect to achieve at the gym?

When you visit a gym, what do you honestly expect to achieve given the work you put in?

Here are two examples of what I mean and I will use a treadmill to illustrate.

Example 1:

You drive to the gym and you’re going to walk on a treadmill at an incline of 10 for 30 minutes and you’re going to hang on because when you don’t hang on it makes it harder but you want to walk uphill because you know the machine will tell you you’ve burnt more calories. You finish and drive home. You do that every single time you go to the gym because you heard somewhere that’s best for burning fat and expending calories.

Example 2:

The other example of a treadmill workout I’ll give is one that somebody might perform who wants to improve their race time over 5 kilometres. This person woke up feeling nervous because they knew this session had to be done today. Everything they ate and drank in the 5 hours preceding was geared towards completing the session successfully and the speeds, duration and rest time had been calculated three days before with the aim of this taking them to a PB in the race next week.

When this person got into the gym they went straight to the matts area to mobilise and prepare. The session was about running fast and so preparation had to be full to reduce the risk of injury. After 10 minutes mobilising they jump on the treadmill to run steady for 5 minutes and then for the next 5 minutes switch between faster runs and slow jogs alternating every 30 seconds. Walk for 3 minutes at the end of that and then the set begins properly. 5 x 1k at faster than race pace with a 2 minute slow walk between each.

The first one is completed and feels comfortable enough. At the end of the second one they know they are in a fight. The third is key because if that is completed then that’s the bulk of the work done. The third is completed but only just because the thoughts of quitting were strong in the last 400 metres. “Get through the 4th and you’ve every chance” says the positive thoughts on one shoulder. “You’re a bum and you’ll quit at 600m” says the demon. It’s a horrible set. It hurts like hell but it gets done. “One more. Just one more and I’m done” they say at the start of the 5th. With 500m to go our runner is flat out, lungs burning, heart pounding, legs shaking!

Boom! Job done! Completed with success. “Damn! I feel fantastic” they pant. “I’m confident for race day.”

Lets now return….

If we return to our first treadmill walker we can look at the risks and rewards for this session. The risks are driving to and from the gym. It is possible that a road accident could occur. Once inside the gym it’s possible there is a murderer in there who hates treadmill walkers. There’s also the risk of building collapse but apart from that I think that’s it. This session gets performed every time this person ventures inside the gym and because of that, the body is completely adapted to it. The body doesn’t worry. It knows exactly how intense it is and has primed the muscles and the cardio respiratory system accordingly. It knows exactly how many calories it burns, it has equipped our walker with the necessary food beforehand and will make them hungry enough to replenish afterwards. And because our walker has done this comfortable (and it is comfortable remember because they hang on to the bars and this limits the max speed of the participant) session so many times they do not experience a physical and mental high or sense of achievement. There is little reward apart from “going to the gym.” Ok I know I’m harsh, you know me by now. Just stick with it. I’ll leave you feeling good like I always do!

And again…..

Onto our interval runner. All the same driving and building risks apply to this person too but we now have the added risks of strained muscles and sprained ligaments through new stimuli and exertion. We have the risk of cuts, bruises and broken limbs if falling off the treadmill happens and in the most extreme of circumstances I suppose it is possible to explode the heart! But seriously, don’t get hung up on that one. It’s a non exerciser’s wet dream and it never happens! Those are our interval runner’s risks but what are his or her rewards?

Sense of achievement from reaching a personal best. Our runner has never ran this fast for this long ever in their life and they are now a better person because of it. What comes from that? Extra strength, endurance and stamina. Possibly fat loss which could happen to our walker too but less likely.

Kudos. It’s been noticed by others in the gym, especially that one who our runner has been eyeing up recently. It’s definitely noted that our man or woman is of prime physical stock and at least worth talking to!

The best reward in my opinion though is belief and self confidence because with belief and confidence, anything else is possible! What greater reward could you want?

The take home from this then is to dare a little.

Doesn’t have to be great, just to push ourselves out of our comfort zone ever so slightly to reap the benefits from doing so. Whatever your exercise choice is, have a go! Let me know how you get on too if you want.

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Grow Old with Health like Richard

If you can be anywhere near as fit and healthy as my client Richard as he heads towards 70, then you have a great chance of reaching 100 years of age and beyond.

I’m 48 at time of writing. I seem to always be stating my age don’t I? I state my age at the start of this to let you know I’m not a kid and to let you know I haven’t finished growing up yet. I’ve not ‘made it’ and nor have I finished pushing forward. Neither’s Richard and if you want to grow old with fitness and health then you’d do well to take a leaf out of his book!

Who’s Richard then? Richard is a 66 year old client of mine who I see for fitness appointments twice a week almost every week. The only weeks we don’t see each other is when he is either on holiday or visiting his children and grandchildren. Never do we miss a week because he is sick and never do we miss an appointment because he is tired or hungover. He realises how important his fitness, strength and health are and he makes sure he prioritises them. If we do miss our sessions because he is on holiday or visiting, he makes sure he takes his kettlebell with him or he seeks out another trainer in the town in which he finds himself. I love that. I really love it. I’m not precious about trying to keep him for myself and to only train with me, I encourage him to spend time with other coaches and we enjoy talking about the sessions he’s done with them.

Working out

So what does he do with his life?

He gets quality sleep every night, going to bed and rising at the same time.

He physically trains hard twice per week, sometimes three.

He moves every day.

He goes outside every day and in the summer exposes himself to sunlight.

He reads.

He stays within the recommended alcohol consumption guidelines.

He eats real food the vast majority of the time.

He always seems to have a project on the go.

He spends time with his family and people he feels enhance his life.

He competes in sport and regularly pushes his physical capabilities.

He doesn’t smoke. Not that I should mention that he doesn’t smoke but as I’ve just looked out of the window and seen someone who is around his age smoking and looking like they have zero zest for life I thought I’d make reference to it.

He lives without pain.

He lives without medication.

And here’s the big one…He’s happy!

Going to the gym

What are the normal symptoms of ageing?

I wrote in a previous blog about Normal Symptoms of Ageing What Do You Think Are Normal Symptoms of Ageing and how it is now considered normal to deteriorate physically and to go on medication. It is actually often a surprise to many when they meet someone in their senior years who is NOT on medication which I find bizarre! I intend never to be on pills, same for Richard.

What does Richard do with his days that makes him lead an energetic life full of quality? Well he wakes up naturally, feeling refreshed because he hasn’t overdosed on wheat, caffeine, sugar or alcohol the night before. This puts him in a place ready to get the most out of the day rather than spending the first couple of hours getting started. He tends to his gardens a few days a week or when he’s not gardening he’s usually painting or renovating something. He is always doing something active, the highlight of that being our twice weekly sessions.

Grow Old with Fitness and Health just like Richard (3)

What do we do in our sessions?

There is this myth that as we get older we should reduce the intensity of our workouts. How many times have you heard or even said yourself – “You need to slow down Dad. That’s too heavy for you. Just go for a walk or do a little gardening. You’ll have a heart attack if you carry on like that.”

We have come to believe that physical exertion for older folks should reduce greatly in intensity as they age, but why? Once again let’s strip it back to our ancestors and the lion chase. The lion won’t chase you slowly because you are old, you’ve still got to sprint away if you want to live!

Sets, duration and recovery might change but the intensity of the single effort never does and Richard and I hugely enjoy watching him reach personal bests with weights lifted and times achieved indoor rowing.

Personally I don’t have my life perfectly balanced. It may seem like I preach my life is the best but it’s not. I’m working on it all the time but something I’m trying to do this year for example is dial back on frequency of exercise in my life. There’s other stuff that needs doing before it’s too late and if I don’t get a move on then all I’ll have to show for my time on this earth is a 6 pack when I get my telegram off the King!

As I move forward, I’m viewing the whole health and fitness game less and less about six packs, great arms and calorie deficits. Far too much disappointment and pressure is attached to superficial goals like these and they don’t bring health and happiness. Richard doesn’t focus on those and you know what he’s got? A six pack and great arms!

Richard’s got it right in my book! Don’t be like me. Be like Richard! He rocks!

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